Arbeidsongevallen zijn vaak te wijten aan menselijk gedrag, hoe mensen met elkaar omgaan en hoe ze met risico’s en richtlijnen omgaan. Bewust bezig zijn met veiligheid is een noodzakelijke voorwaarde voor veiligheid op de werkvloer. Door middel van cursussen, trainingen en ‘risk assessment’ kan een beter begrip en draagvlak gecreëerd worden voor veiligheid op de werkvloer. Dit is vooral het terrein van de Arbowetgeving. Omgevingsbewustzijn is echter ook belangrijk voor veiligheid op de werkvloer. Een adequaat inzicht in de huidige situatie is belangrijk om de gevolgen van bepaalde handelingen te kunnen beoordelen en om nadelige en schadelijke gevolgen en daarmee ongelukken te voorkomen. De menselijke vaardigheden schieten echter vaak te kort in complexe situaties en onder tijdsdruk en werkdruk. Doel van dit onderzoek is om na te gaan hoe technologie – en vooral Ambient Intelligence – kan bijdragen aan het verbeteren van de menselijke vaardigheden als het gaat om het beoordelen van een situatie en de gevolgen van handelingen. In dit onderzoek is gekeken hoe omgevingsbewustzijn tot stand komt, welke factoren daarbij een rol spelen en hoe dit proces in positieve en negatieve zin kan worden beïnvloed. Verder is gekeken naar de stand van zaken en de (technologische) ontwikkelingen op andere terreinen waar omgevingsbewustzijn een belangrijke rol speelt, zoals hulpverlening, defensie en luchtverkeersleiding. Die bevindingen zijn vervolgens geprojecteerd in de context van veiligheid op de werkvloer. De conclusie is dat Ambient Intelligence omgevingsbewustzijn kan verbeteren op alle niveaus. Ambient Intelligence verhoogt de perceptie, verbetert het inzicht en stelt in staat om de gevolgen van handelingen beter te kunnen inschatten. Omdat veiligheid op de werkvloer een uitgebreid gebied is en omdat ongelukken zeer divers van aard zijn, van incidenteel tot structureel, is de aanbeveling om aan de hand van een aantal geselecteerde ‘use-cases’ in de volgende fase meer focus en verdieping aan te brengen.
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The scope of this thesis of Gerrit Bouwhuis, lecturer at Saxion Research Centre for Design and Technology in Enschede is the development of a new industrial applicable pre-treatment process for cotton based on catalysis. The pre-treatment generally consists of desizing, scouring and bleaching. These processes can be continuous or batch wise. Advances in the science of biocatalytic pre-treatment of cotton and catalytic bleaching formed the scientific basis for this work. The work of Agrawal on enzymes for bio-scouring and of Topalovic on catalytic bleaching led to the conclusion that reduced reaction temperatures for the pre-treatment processes of cotton are possible. A second reason for the present work is a persistent and strong pressure on the industry to implement ‘more sustainable’ and environmental friendlier processes. It was clear that for the industrial implementation of the newly developed process it would be necessary to ‘translate’ the academic knowledge based on the catalysts, into a process at conditions that are applicable in textile industry. Previous experiences learned that the transition from academic knowledge into industrial applicable processes often failed. This is caused by lack of experience of university researchers with industrial product and process development as well as a lack of awareness of industrial developers of academic research. This is especially evident for the so-called Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s). To overcome this gap a first step was to organize collaboration between academic institutes and industries. The basis for the collaboration was the prospect of this work for benefits for all parties involved. A rational approach has been adopted by first gathering knowledge about the properties and morphology of cotton and the know how on the conventional pre-treatment process. To be able to understand the conventional processes it was necessary not only to explore the chemical and physical aspects but also to evaluate the process conditions and equipment that are used. This information has been the basis for the present lab research on combined bio-catalytic desizing and scouring as well as catalytic bleaching. For the measurement of the performance of the treatments and the process steps, the performance indicators have been evaluated and selected. Here the choice has been made to use industrially known and accepted performance indicators. For the new bio-catalytic pre-treatment an enzyme cocktail, consisting of amylase, cutinase and pectinase has been developed. The process conditions in the enzyme cocktail tests have been explored reflecting different pre-treatment equipment as they are used in practice and for their different operation conditions. The exploration showed that combined bio-catalytic desizing and scouring seemed attractive for industrial application, with major reduction of the reaction and the rinsing temperatures, leading to several advantages. The performance of this treatment, when compared with the existing industrial treatment showed that the quality of the treated fabric was comparable or better than the present industrial standard, while concentrations enzymes in the cocktail have not yet been fully optimized. To explore the application of a manganese catalyst in the bleaching step of the pre-treatment process the fabrics were treated with the enzyme cocktail prior to the bleaching. It has been decided not to use conventional pre-treatment processes because in that case the combined desizing and scouring step would not be integrated in the newly developed process. To explore catalytic bleaching it has been tried to mimic the existing industrial processes where possible. The use of the catalyst at 100°C, as occurs in a conventional steamer, leads to decomposition of the catalyst and thus no bleach activation occurs. This led to the conclusion that catalytic bleaching is not possible in present steamers nor at low temperatur
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High level circular use of post-consumer insulating glass units will contribute to lower the environmental and social impact of insulation glass industry. The application of various circular strategies for insulating glass units (IGU’s) is rising. The product age will give an indication of the remaining life-time of an IGU, but a method which includes screening a technical quality is needed to check if an IGU is indeed suitable for re-use on a high level of circularity. In this study the argon concentration is suggested as discriminative quality. Energy efficient double glazing applied in windows of buildings situated in The Netherlands were studied. Product codes were noted and unraveled. Measurements were performed using the Sparklike Laser Portable, a non-invasive argon measuring device, which generates argon concentration, glass thickness and cavity width values. In addition, measurements were performed with a Glass Check thickness meter. The resulting data were analyzed. Measuring errors were explored and used to setup a testing procedure. Threshold values of the product age and argon concentration were selected for different circular strategies. In conclusion, a screening method using the product age and argon concentration to determine the circular use potential of insulating glass units is proposed.
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